The disclosure of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/402,124, filed Aug. 24, 2010, is hereby incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
Large unitary bales of agricultural material, e.g., cotton, biomass, hayage, silage, etc., also commonly referred to as modules, or large square bales, are a common manner of packaging for high productivity. Presently, large baling and packaging apparatus carried on or towed by harvesting machines, also referred to as module builders or on-board module builders (OBMB), are capable of forming bales and modules as large as 8 feet by 8 feet by 16 feet (approx. 250 by 250 by 500 cm). These bales and modules are unloaded to ground level without covers or other wrapping materials. This unloading can occur in the field, or at the periphery of the field, and the bales or modules are picked up later for processing, use, or storage. Tarps designed to cover the top and partially the sides of the bales or modules are often installed within a few hours after unloading. Such bales or modules would benefit, however, by being wrapped or packaged as they are unloaded, for instance, when the OBMB tilts to unload the bale or module onto a field. An advantage would be that the integrity of the module would be improved and ground losses of the agricultural material would be reduced.
Therefore, what is sought is a system and method for wrapping large bales and modules of agricultural material including, but not limited to, cotton bales and biomass bales, before being unloaded onto the ground, so as to improve integrity and reduce ground losses.